Maintaining Momentum

Michael L. Good, MD, served as the University of Utah’s interim president in the spring and summer of 2021, between the departure of former president Ruth Watkins and the appointment of new president Taylor R. Randall. UtahMed sat down with Good to talk about that experience:

What were some similarities between heading a university and an academic health system?

The University of Utah and U of U Health are both large, complex, and most importantly, mission-driven organizations. The University makes our health system stronger, and U of U Health makes our university stronger. There are more synergies and similarities than differences. Both the U and U of U Health pursue excellence in education, research, and service to community. Both of our accomplishments are based on the achievements of our faculty and their teams, and our learners.

What were the biggest differences?

While similarities clearly outnumber, there are differences between the broader University and the academic health care system. For U of U Health, our mission of providing world-class patient care is one example. While serving as interim president, three subject areas were particularly active during the spring and summer of 2021.

First and foremost was safety; we were determined to stay focused on advancing our campus and student safety programs, and now also keeping the campus community safe with respect to the coronavirus pandemic.

The second area was athletics. As interim president, I represented the University of Utah in selecting our new PAC-12 commissioner. We have an exceptional athletic director in Mark Harlan, and Mark made sure we were lined up correctly in some very important and complex matters, including the implementation of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies at our university, the shifting Power Five conference alignments, and ongoing discussions about expansion of the college football playoff system.

Finally, it was a busy time with the Utah Board of Higher Education, which finalized and approved a five-year strategic plan and began to implement performance goals for each of the universities across our state.

Wellness and resiliency have been areas of emphasis during the last two years at U of U Health. How did you manage your well-being during your time as interim president?

As I have done throughout my career, I continued the personal programs that I use to keep myself healthy—physically and mentally—while serving as interim president. I’ve given these important strategies clever names, including “vacation prescriptions,” “Noah’s Ark,” “electronic blackouts,” “walk the yellow line,” “managing infinite work,” and several others; perhaps in the future we can explore these in depth. Maintaining wellness and resiliency is both personal and communal.